Iran: Viral Video Shows Security Forces Brutally Beating Protester, Police Vow to Investigate

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As a top rights organization decried what it called the "crisis of impunity" in the nation, Iranian police announced they would look into a video incident in which security forces attacked and shot an individual.

In the video, security officers can be seen assaulting a man who is lying on the ground in front of a residential complex before one of them shoots him.

Iran Security Forces Beat, Shot Protestor

Unknown events may have occurred before to the time the video was taken, or the man may not be in good condition, as the individual who was capturing the incident is heard saying, "They shot the guy with shotgun pellets... they must have killed the guy."

This is not the first time police have requested an investigation into videos of security forces attacking civilians; Amnesty International released the same video on Tuesday and stated that it was "another awful reminder that the savagery of Iran's security forces knows no limitations."

According to the state-aligned ISNA, in October the police threatened to "issue a special order" to deal with any officers who harassed a woman physically in the streets of Tehran. A police officer was seen grabbing a woman improperly while trying to arrest her alongside several other policemen in the incident, which was caught on camera, as per CNN.

The unrest began as a response to the killing of Mahsa Amini, 22, in mid-September while she was in the hands of the morality police-allegedly as a result of inappropriate clothing-and has persisted for seven weeks.

People from all around the nation have taken part in anti-regime protests and chanted "Death to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," making this one of the biggest threats to the government since the Islamic Revolution's success in 1979. Iranian leaders attribute the issue to the US and other Western nations, but the majority of Iranians reject this explanation, VOA News reported.

Iran Protests

In an address to schoolchildren, Khamenei, who has seldom commented on the protests, accused the United States of creating "a plan for Tehran and the country's great and small cities," calling American officials who support the rallies "shameless."

A revised death toll of 176 persons has been recorded as a result of the crackdown on protests started by Amini's passing, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights.

In a separate protest wave in Zahedan, in the province of Sistan-southeast, Baluchestan's another 101 people have died. Rights advocates claim that thousands of individuals have been detained nationally, while Iran's judiciary claims that 1,000 people have already been charged in connection with what it calls "riots."

Iranian protestors continue to put their lives at risk and protest in the streets despite the killings, arrests, and stern warning from the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Every mourning ceremony for the dozens of people slain in the crackdown becomes a potential hotspot for protests in Iran, where it is customary to observe 40 days following a death. This presents a challenge to the regime.

Per NDTV, family members claim that Amini's death resulted from a blow to the head received while being held captive. In an official medical report, the Iranian government eventually refuted this justification.

Anger over Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women, which the police who detained Amini were following, spurred the rallies. They have developed into a focal point for the public's rage against the government that has controlled Iran since the shah's overthrow in 1979.

A 40-day memorial service for Hannaneh Kia, 23, who a rights group claims was fatally shot by security personnel in the Nowshahr city on the Caspian Sea, was attended by a sizable number of people on Wednesday, according to IHR.

In a video that was released by the group, they screamed "Death to Khamenei" and clapped hands together. Funerals and 40-day memorial services for dead protesters are increasingly being used as a trigger for more upheaval, according to Kita Fitzpatrick, an Iran analyst at the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.